San Francisco - USA
This weekend,due to having to go to see the British Consulate for some stuff around the wedding, I made the trip south to San Fransisco with my parents in town for a couple weeks, so we sneaked in some sight seeing on the way!
This is the flight into San Fran, pretty amazing, as when your approaching it feels like your headed into the sea. I guess a plane did just that recently in the last couple of years.
Just like being back home. Straight to it.
So San Fransisco is pretty amazing, a lot of tourists, but very nice none the less. Chinatown was selling all kinds of stuff.
This was probably one of my highlights, the sealions, who reside here in the bay. They first came here after the earthquake (of the 80s i believe) and at first there was a few then around 300, and at the peak of 2010 there were 1200 who would turn up, with the time after August when they are at their peak numbers wise.
Alcatraz is quite the tourist trap, I mean a prison on an island which you can see wherever you are, its a pretty good strategy.
Another of the key pieces to San Fran is the cable cars, which you imagine are everywhere, but in reality its only a couple of streets.
For a country so worried by rules, its funny they let kids hang on by one hand.
I'm not sure the proper name of this street, our cab driver called it the crooked street, which brings millions of people to look at.
Homeless folk everywhere sleeping on the public parks.
This is just a model but you can see how big Alcatraz is, and not just a single building on a rock.
These are the street cars which are equally as impressive as the cable cars.
Dad just getting his ship spotting game on point.
Enjoying some sun.
There was a lot of nice spots down by the piers including this area, which again, black an white photography, you know me...
Oakland Bridge in all its glory.
Big Ben replica?
There was a Liberty ship on display one of the boats used by the allies during the war. They were built using a British model, and the idea was to build them quicker than the enemy could sink them. 60 days start to launch. Pretty amazing turnaround.
You know the drill, lights, long exposure, its not rocket science.
Another view of the rock.
Our Futsal team in training already. These things are everywhere, and you know people can't get enough of them.
From the pier...
On the way round to the Golden Gate there was a dog convention.
Mum and Dad looking on at the ships and the Bridge.
It really is an impressive sight.
All in all we cycled about 15km on Saturday.
We actually did the cycle across the bridge, which was windy as hell. Crazy up there, there must be so many people loosing hats, phones, cameras off the top of that thing.
I'm pretty keen on these in black and white.
Dad asking for his lunch vouchers.
There was also a big outdoor yoga class which everyone was at, pretty impressive as there must have been 200 people there.
Even managed to go see the build up to the Florida Marlins visiting San Fransisco Giants, which ended a 5-0 win for Florida. We saw a guy outside with a fishing rod who would catch all the lost balls which get hit out of the park using his fishing rod into the sea. They also had a free area for watching the game for around 120 people, such a good system for people to watch the game, and amazing for tourists
In order to get around, we used the bikes, an amazing system called the Bay Area Bike Share, such a good system, although we ended up not really understanding it properly. Its amazing though, great bikes, available all across town, for half an hour at a time. Definitely recommend these guys! Thank You San Fransisco!